Lancashire Lanes

Well it's been another crazy month for work and add to that the 400 has been in having a full strip down and replacement of almost every bearing and seal on it and that was riding out the window!

However, Lucy & I managed to get an afternoon out in Lancashire this weekend, specifically to go ride Salter Fell, which is one of the longer lanes but also one of the few left in Lancashire it appears!! We got there, unloaded the bikes and set off, this area is lovely and a real hidden gem, lots of hidden valleys and open moorland, wildlife and scenery...

We were greeted with the usual British council favourite method of drawing your attention to something...

Nice positive signage!!

The northern end of the lane

The lane started really easily, stretching away into the hills before us, as we went through the gate, we saw a lone rider approaching so thought to wait at the gate and close it after he'd gone, as normal though he stopped for a chat, on his CCM GP450, he was out on a solo ride day from somewhere in southern Lancashire and had taken B roads and some lanes to get to Salter before heading home, a very happy chappie with an obvious pride about his bike...

Lucy and I set off after our chat and had a bit of a blast along the good surface, before starting to drop into the little rough bits along the trail. The heather was a lovely colour at this time of year, the shooting sport use of the land very obvious with all the huts etc spread around.

As we came to the final parts of the lane and the descent back to the valleys, we came across a stone with some carvings on it, these need a little more investigation, so I'll see what I can dig up, plenty of history there reading these words!

We also came across a sign saying this was on the Whisky Trail, now that does need investigation!!

The trails gets a bit rougher under the wheel on this descent and we saw out first walkers for the day, a couple enjoying the mixed weather and great views and another couple heading back to their car, a smile and a cheery wave as we passed by...

Once down off Salter, we decided to try to make a loop of it, with a few of the trails local to Ingleton before heading back to the van... some were lovely and clearly not to well used, others have gone back to nature or have been lost to the NERC act unfortunately.

Our ride ended with a trip to the great little friendly chippy in Ingleton, where we bumped into Stuart Monk, the TRF RoW officer for the area, so a lively chat was had about laning before finishing up and heading back to the van...

Another lovely afternoon in a new area for us, plenty more to go at it seems!!

A Play on the Lanes

Some fun in the mud today, some nice lanes, a grumpy farmer and a very cool farmer who was just upset at the damage done to his field by a group with some 4x4's....

Oh and an epic finish as I had no clutch for the ride home!

We finished off the final part of the survey work for the Cumbria Hierarchy of Trails and got the notes to write up from Steve Pighills, so more lanes to add to the growing list of places to ride in the UK!

Boggy places that needed a bit of infill... we made a little causeway on one section so we could pass without any damage, great fun and good for next time too!

We met a farmer who was less than happy with a 4x4 group that had gone through his fields yesterday at Albyfield, the last time I rode this two weeks ago, it was pristine and looks like it hadn't seen tyres for years... today it was like this!

The tyre marks were about a foot deep, and over the hill, they had got bogged in and left a massive trench, it's this kind of antics that make them really unpopular!!

Another great day out, but my bike is now desperately in need of a full service, so it's time to take it off the road and get it sorted!!

Askham Horse Event: A TRF supported trial

In the couple of years I've been a member of the Trail Riders Federation, I've managed to go through a few thought processes.


My first meeting, with Lucy, wasn't overly positive I have to say, we walked away not really fussed about the whole thing. Over time however, I've realised that the TRF is just a group of people, people who share a passion, but also people with vastly different points of views, back grounds and positions in life.

I've taken a bit of time to get involved and put some effort into my local group, which is the Cumbria group and today was one of those days where that effort and patience really paid off for me personally. A true payback day!

Roger, the Secretary, got an email from a lady called Kath, who was organising a horse event, it's basically an endurance course on the fells and she had the land owners permission to use their section of the Cumbrian Fells to hold that event.

Those fells happened to be some of the fells that used to be legal to ride in Roger's lifetime and with the rather sneaky NERC act are now not. Long have I looked at these lanes and wanted to ride them and today my chance came!

Kath needed the route recce'd as there were a couple of boggy bits that she was concerned about, places where the horses could get injured, so our first job was to recce those sections. We jumped on our bikes and set off down the tiny little tarmac lanes to the first part of the upland section and headed for the bogs!


The weather has been dry most of this week and this proved fortuitous for both us and the horses, the bog had drained and was passable, so we returned to Kath with the good news and collected the marker flags to go mark the route, we would do the high sections and Kath herself would do the lower sections.

Throughout the whole afternoon, we rode over the fells, placing flag markers to help with the navigation of the riders on the next day. As luck would have it, it was dry, warm and the views were brilliant, good banter was had and we stopped a few times to just sit on a rocky outcrop and enjoy the view. We developed a process of whoever had the flags would stop and the next rider to arrive would then take one and place it, we settled on about 50 - 80 meters apart as we all knew what tomorrows weeather held in store for everyone!

We had one guy all day who had a properly sour look on his face, he never said anything but it was very clear he was an unhappy chappie as we passed by, Another guy with a soft scottish accent out for a fell run actually talked to us and asked pretty politely if it was legal for us to be there, once we explained what we were doing and what he could expect for Sunday, he was very chatty before heading off uphill on his saturday local jog!

We were done by about 3.30pm, a great day had by all, a rare glimpse into what life was like in Cumbria before the advent of both NERC and the current climate of the 'No' fraternity.

Kath was extremely pleased with our efforts and we'll see on the morrow how the riders get on. Our job on Sunday, check the markers are still there first thing, then clean the fell up once all the horses and riders have passed through, plus act as safety cover for injured riders during the event itself etc.

Happy days!!

A few lanes around Newark

Work has taken me to the East Midlands for awhile, so as part of a bigger project, I looked up a bunch of lanes around Newark and did a bit of research to put a route together.

Geoff & I hooked up to go have a play and we found some good stuff, a fair bit of tarmac was needed to link them but they were really pretty with some beautiful hidden away villages next to the A1!

Although the lanes were pretty dry at this time of year, I'm guessing they become a mud fest in the winter, the soil around here has a clay base to it and it's pretty gooey, tyre sucking stuff...

Everything is lushly overgrown too at the moment with this mix of warm sun and showers floating around...

I'm aware there is a lot of controversy about dirt bikes around the Mansfield area and this was evident when we rode down a lane and met a farmer, who was pretty surly before we'd even turned off any engines. No explanantions just 'get off my land' comments and lots of pointing hands... we just turned around and left after a very brief discussion, found the other end of the lane and rode it there and back. I've emailed Newark CC for a clarification about the status of the appoach road to that lane and whether it is a private road or not. We'll see

For the rest of the lanes though, everyone we met was smiley and chatty, this was mostly around the villages though, as for the most part the lanes were empty of anyone.

We had to cross a railway line at one point and the 'look left and right' sign was very poinent as Geoff had already crossed to open the gate as I closed the initial gate, as I turned around there was a train horn sounding and an express train went by at a good rate of knotts... glad I'd taken my time there!!!

We finished the afternoon with a pait of properly muddy bikes and still plenty of lanes to look at for another time...

Great stuff, more lovely exploring in the UK countryside with good mates...

The Mull of Galloway...

Two friends of ours, Richard & Jo, planned a biking weekend with us, Lucy & Jo hatched the plan and Richard did most of the navigating for the weekend which left me free to just pootle at the back of the group, great! I'm knackered at the moment from too much work!!

We set of Friday afternoon heading for Kirkcudbright of the south coast of Scotland. The main aim of the ride ou was to get to the Mull of Kintyre without using the M6 or A75 if at all possible. Turns out it mostly is!!

Meeting up in Carlisle in the late afternoon, saw us fuelled up and heading first north onto the old road to Rockcliffe, the B721, then across the Scottish border and into Gretna Green... It's a much quieter route to Dumfries and has lots of odd bits of history including the Devil's Porridge museum!!

After Dumfries, we turned south to Caerlaverock Castle for much needed tea and cake, then out to New Abbey and it's great old ruins, calling in at Dalbeattie for some shopping before we headed out to wild camp on the beach somewhere.

Fuel and bike shop in Dalbeattie

Hunting for a bivvy site on the coast

We eventually came across a lovely little beach, so promptly parked up and got a fire going, before drinking a beer from out shopping trip... tents up after dark saw us sitting on the beach chatting, when a lass from a group celebrating a birthday further down the beach turned up offering us some great chunks of firewood as they were just leaving, a good chat and a bit of a walk saw us with a lovely big bonfire to keep the chill off and a view of a very red Mars in the dark sky!

Saturday dawned grey and a little cooler, so bacon butties and plenty of tea and coffee saw us all packed up and heading west again.

Richards new light weight Trangia stove

The roads and towns around here don't seem to have changed for donkey's years. The architecture is generally all classic Scottish croft and granite built houses. I love all this traditional stuff of the Southern Uplands area, but I bet it's hard to maintain and live with these days...

You can see some more modern building appearing but they look a little crass in this setting really...

We called into the Isle of Whithorn, which is a proper sleepy little seaside town, more reminiscent of Cornwall than Scotland, more tea and cake followed before heading out again towards the Mull.

The Mull of Kintyre is Scotland's southerly most point, on a clear day you can see both the tip of the Cumbrian headland and its mountains as well as across to the Isle of Man.

For us, it was blue skies all the way and after mooching around the lighthouse, we discovered a beautiful little bay which just seemed too good to pass up as our camp for the night.

Some shopping in Stranraer saw us with a bottle of whisky and some BBQ stuff, so we sat on the beach and just watched world go by whilst talking shite, as you do!!

The next morning brought a proper feast of haggis, lorn sausage and bacon to start the day, the farmer arrived and collected his camp fee, we then went back to the light house for another mooch around before heading back east and home.

The route home took us a bit further north onto the A712 from Newton Stuart through the Galloway Forest Park and eventually onto New Galloway. This is a perfect bike road, fast and superb bends, with great views. We stopped for pictures at the Craigencallie Lake before continuing on a north easterly route to Monaive via the B7075 and the A702, both lovely roads, although you do have to watch for the odd bit of gravel on the corners!

I did my good deed for the day by pulling a guy on his very crashed Fireblade out of the bushes, he'd obviously drifted over too far and all his plastics had suffered the consequences of this!
He was OK so once the bike was back on tarmac and he had called his recovery company I left him to it to catch up with the others.

We were back home by 5pm, Lucy with a big smile on her face as this was her first 'road trip' with camping on her bike and me with a greater appreciation of my Triumph Tiger, it is heavy with soft suspension but it is a lovely bike to ride!!

Happy days... Now it's back to work for awhile again!!